Struggling to break bad habits and making good ones ?

James Clear wrote one the best books about this.

Every month I read several books on business, well-being, real estate and construction. I post my favorite extracts from these books on my page.

In his book “Atomic Habits”, he states that the 4 steps in the “Habit Loop” to create new habits

Step 1: Make the cue more visible

1.     Habits become automatic when our brains pick up cues and predict certain rewards without conscious thought. To start a new habit, make your cues more obvious.

2.     To change your habits, you must first become aware of them.

3.     Use the 2 most common cues—time and location—to implement your goals.

4.     Stack your habits by tying a desired habit to an existing habit.

5.     Design your environment to shape your behavior.

Step 2: Make the habit attractive

1.     We take action only when we expect it to produce a reward. The more rewarding the action, the more we’ll repeat it, until it becomes a habit that we do automatically or subconsciously. Thus, to form good habits, we need to make them more attractive, which helps with the dopamine level.

2.     Dopamine is a hormone and neurotransmitter which affects our motivation levels. When dopamine levels rise, we feel more motivated to take action.

3.     To build better habits, join a culture, group or environment where your desired behavior is the norm.

Step 3: Make the steps easy

To more you practice something, the better you become at it and the easier it seems. The best way to build a habit is to practice it, and the best way to start practicing is to make it easy.

1.     The law of least effort says that we’re programmed to conserve energy and will gravitate toward options that’re the least effortful.

2.     Design your tasks and environment to reduce friction, i.e. make the actions as easy to do as possible.

3.     Use the “2-minute rule” to develop mini habits that lead to bigger ones: Identify a simple, 2-minute version of your desired habit like playing the piano for 2 mins as soon as you wake up.

4.     Do the reverse for bad habits, e.g. unplug the TV and remove the batteries from the remote control so it’s hard to watch TV.

Step 4: Create instant satisfaction

Logically, most of us know the value of delayed gratification. Yet, our brain naturally seeks instant gratification—it attaches a higher value to a definite reward now over a possible reward in the future:

1.     Use this tendency to your advantage by giving yourself an immediate reward whenever (i) you complete a good habit or (ii) avoid a bad habit.

2.     Make your progress more visible and satisfying, e.g. mark on a calendar each time you complete your desired habits. This does the following:

a.     acts as a visual cue to trigger repeat action,

b.     creates satisfaction each time you complete the habit, and (

c.     shows the progress you’ve made.

3.     Don’t break the chain of continuity. Never miss twice, as that’s the start of a bad habit.

Comment on what you think of the above.